Riley’s Rogues:
Twilight Zone
A Riley Solo Adventure
Raymond Fiore
Character cover art by Ryann Fiore
Riley’s Rogues: Twilight Zone
Raymond Fiore
ISBN: 9781301595266
Copyright © 2012 by Raymond Fiore
14 February 2126
Percival City, Glister
Riley reached down and pried the silenced pistol from the hitman’s dead hand. He looked down at the corpse and saw that there were two bullet wounds in his chest, one of which had cracked the man’s sternum. A third bullet had entered the deadman’s mouth, through his teeth. He dragged the body fully into his dingy hotel room, peeked out into the hallway, clear, then closed the door.
Walking to the dirty window, Riley put the hitman’s pistol down on the small table, then parted the blinds. His eyes were assaulted by the neon lights from the buildings across the street. Rain was pelting the window and the occasional lightning flash told Riley that the storm was approaching. The sound of a police siren drew his attention, and Riley breathed a sigh of relief as it continued past his hotel and down the street. Any fear that Riley was feeling before the encounter, had now disappeared. He now knew where he stood.
Riley walked over to the bed and sat down. He swung his legs onto the bed and scooted back until he was sitting against the headboard. When he placed his own silenced pistol on his lap, he could still feel the warmth from the barrel.
Riley contemplated his situation. It seemed that fate had finally turned its back on him. He looked at the metal briefcase sitting on the floor next to the bed. It was not a good feeling, knowing that you had been double-crossed by the person to whom you were supposed to deliver the case. Now he was all alone, and only a few hundred meters from the border.
There was one possibility left to him. Riley grabbed the comm handset from the table and started to punch numbers into the keypad, but there were no reassuring tones. The line was dead. Coincidence? No. Can’t be. I have to get out of here.
Riley got up and rushed to the window. Nothing appeared to be out of the ordinary. He quietly walked to the door and slowly turned the handle. He pulled the door open enough for one eye to peer into the hallway. Still clear.
He tucked his pistol into his waistband and put on his wrinkled suit coat. He grabbed the briefcase and went back to the door. Another peek into the hallway, then he quickly slipped through the door and headed towards the back stairs.
As he approached the stairs he heard the slightest of creaks from the lower landing. Riley stopped. He stepped back into the shadows, slowly pulled his pistol out and aimed it down the stairs.
Breathing as shallowly as he could, Riley waited. His heart started beating faster. A shadow appeared, slowly moving up the stairs. Riley’s heart started pounding as he placed his pistol sight at the center of where the shadow’s owner would appear. He didn’t have to wait long. The next thing to appear after the shadow was the barrel of a silenced submachine gun. Riley’s finger tensed on the trigger as his heart’s pounding became louder and more intense. So much so, that Riley thought it may give him away.
A dark coat appeared next, then the face of the man that would kill Riley. But he would never even have a chance. Riley’s finger squeezed and he sent two shots into the man’s chest. The submachine gun clattered down the stairs as the man was thrown back against the wall. Riley rushed down the stairs to catch up with him.
There was no one else in sight and the silenced shots had attracted no attention. Riley looked down at the man, saw that he wasn’t dead, merely stunned by the impact of the pistol shots. Kneeling down, Riley opened the man’s coat and saw that he was wearing a bullet resistant vest. Grabbing him by the collar, Riley held his pistol to the man’s head.
“Who sent you?” He almost hissed at the man.
“Go to hell!” The man said, still trying to catch his breath.
“I’m not going to ask you again.”
“You might as well pull the trigger, because I’m not telling you anything,” the man said as he slowly retrieved a knife from his coat pocket, out of Riley’s sight. With a push of the button, the blade flicked out and he thrust the knife into Riley’s left arm.
“Son of a bitch!” Riley cried as he pulled away. The man reached for his submachine gun, grabbed it and started to turn, when Riley fired two shots, striking the man in the throat. Riley watched the man fall back against the wall, and slowly slide down to a sitting position. He tried to speak, but blood was gurgling out of his wounds. A moment later his eyes glazed over, the gurgling stopped, and he slumped over to the floor.
Riley pulled the knife out of his arm with a stifled scream and threw it at the man’s lifeless body. He looked at the bloody hole in the arm of his coat and reached down to grab the briefcase with his right hand. Riley managed to hold onto his pistol and the briefcase’s handle with the same hand as he made his way down the stairs and through the door into the alley.
It was still raining and the sound of rolling thunder could be heard above the night time sounds of Percival City. Riley headed down the alley, his left arm dangling in pain. When he reached the end of the alley he carefully looked down both sides of the main street. A ground car passed by without slowing, splashing water from a puddle onto Riley.
He headed in the opposite direction from where the car had come, carefully looking around, while trying not to be too obvious. There were no other pedestrians, but he knew people were still around. This seedy part of Percival never slept.
A pair of headlights approaching from the rear caught Riley’s attention. He continued down the street, looking for a cross street, or even another alley. Some way to get off the main street. But there was nothing. Not even an unlocked doorway. The headlights grew brighter. Riley turned to face the car. He placed the briefcase down and held his pistol at his side.
The car pulled to a stop, twenty meters in front of Riley. The headlights were almost blinding, but he could tell that doors opened on both sides. Riley held his bad arm up, trying to shield his eyes from the headlights. Trying to see who exited the car.
“You have something we want.” The voice was even, measured, with a slight accent that Riley couldn’t place. Riley started to raise his right arm.
“Don’t!” The metallic sound of weapons being readied was clearly audible. Riley let his arm drop to his side.
“Just leave the case there and walk away.”
“I can’t do that,” Riley said, dryly. The raindrops seemed to be falling in slow motion through the headlight beams.
“Then you will die!”
Riley crouched and started raising his pistol, expecting a hail of bullets. But before a shot was fired, another ground car came screaming up from behind Riley and pulled to a stop between him and his killers.
The gull wing door popped open as the killers started firing. The female driver yelled, “Get in!”
Riley grabbed the briefcase and dove into the rear seat of the car. The driver accelerated in reverse, spun the car around and started screaming away from the firing.
“Who are you?” Riley asked as he pulled the gull wing closed.
“Not now! Are they following us yet?” The driver asked.
Riley craned his neck around, but the rain drops on the rear window and the night lights obscured his vision. “I can’t tell, but I’m sure they will.” Riley crawled into the front passenger seat. “Turn here,” he said.
The car slid around the corner as the driver fought to maintain control.
“I think if you can get through the tunnel to mainside, we can possibly lose them in the traffic.”
“That’s
what I was thinking,” the driver glanced at Riley. “You don’t look like your picture.”
“What picture?”
“This one,” she said as she handed Riley a photo that was obviously taken from a distance as he was making his way through the crowded grav-rail station.
“Where did you get this?” Riley looked at the driver. She was young, blonde, and cute. She was wearing a wet raincoat and he could see a pistol cradled in her lap.
“My employer gave it to me,” she said as she maneuvered through the tunnel, trying to force her way through traffic.
Riley’s eyes were fixed on the pistol. He snatched it from her lap using his left arm, “Ahh!” He cried as he grabbed the wounded arm with his good hand.
“Are you hit?” She asked.
“No, this happened before you rescued me.” Riley tucked the pistol under his right leg, then tore a strip from his undershirt and roughly bandaged his knife wound. “I’ll hold onto the pistol until I find out who you are.”
The car exited the tunnel, turned a few random corners, then pulled to the curb. The driver looked in the mirror, then looked all around. “I think we lost them.”
“There’s an all night diner two blocks that way. I’d rather talk someplace with people around, if you know what I mean,” Riley said.
“I know,” she said as she pulled from the curb and drove to the diner.
They sat at a booth in the corner, away from the few other patrons. Riley set the briefcase on the seat next to him. His silenced pistol was tucked in his waistband and he had her pistol in his coat pocket.
“My name’s Vanessa. I work for Wayne Hardisty,” she said. A sleepy-eyed waitress carrying a carafe walked up to their table. “Coffee,” Vanessa said.
“Make it two,” Riley added. The waitress just nodded and poured two cups of coffee before shuffling away.
“Wayne Hardisty? I don’t know of any Wayne Hardisty” Riley said as he sipped the hot liquid.
“Well, he knows you, and he knows what you have there,” she motioned towards the briefcase. “And he wants to buy it.” Vanessa held her cup in both hands trying to warm them.
“It just so happens that the original buyer doesn’t want to pay for it anymore,” Riley offered. The door chimed as it opened. Riley leaned slightly to his right so he could see who entered. Just a couple of young men that apparently had just came over from the bar across the street. They sat at the far end of the counter, away from Riley and Vanessa.
“I have an apartment not far from here—in Edgewater. Why don’t we go there and work out the details?” Vanessa offered. Her face was tilted down, but her eyes were looking into Riley’s.
“Your apartment? How do I know you don’t have someone waiting there to ambush me and take this?”
One of the men from the counter stood up and headed in Riley’s direction. He was looking straight ahead, towards the bathroom door, but Riley kept his eye on him anyway. As the man passed Riley, his eyes darted towards the briefcase for a split second, then back towards the door again.
“I’m here to make you a legitimate offer. If I wanted to make a hard move for the briefcase, I would’ve brought my own muscle,”she said.
Riley ignored her and glanced at the other man still sitting at the counter. He was busy staring into his coffee cup.
“Did you hear me?” Vanessa asked.”What are you doing?”
“How do I know you didn’t bring your own muscle?” Riley nodded towards the man at the counter. “Don’t turn around!” he breathed.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Vanessa said. “But I—,” she started, but was cut off by Riley holding his finger to his lips.
The door to the bathroom creaked open behind Riley. He could hear the footsteps of the man from the counter as he came up behind him. When the man was two steps away from him, Riley stood quickly and turned to face the man. He was met with a look of surprise that was followed by Riley hitting the man in the forehead with the butt of his pistol. The man dropped to the floor, unconscious.
Riley turned to face the remaining man at the counter who saw what had happened and was standing and pulling a pistol from his belt. Riley fired two quick, silenced shots, sending the man sprawling back over his stool to the ground. Riley then turned back to the unconscious man at his feet and fired one shot into the man’s right kneecap.
“Let’s go!” he said, retrieving his briefcase and leading Vanessa out of the diner. As they passed the stunned waitress, Riley tossed a 20 credit bill at her. “Sorry.”
Riley climbed in behind the wheel of Vanessa’s car as she climbed into the passenger’s seat, and they headed away from the diner at a high rate of speed.
“How did you know those men were after you?” Vanessa was still stunned by the encounter.
“The first guy looked at the briefcase as he walked by, and I saw the butt of his pistol sticking out from under his shirt. Now, how do we get to your place?”
“Turn right up ahead.”
* * *
When Riley pulled into her parking garage, he made a careful visual inspection before getting out of the car. There was no one else in the dimly lit parking level that he could see.
“The elevator’s over here,” Vanessa said as she exited the car. She led Riley to the elevator and pushed the button for the 17th floor.
When the doors opened, Riley held his arm in front of her, barring her way, and wincing in pain. He peeked out of the doors and checked the corridor. When he was satisfied that it was clear, he lowered his arm and let her lead the way. They walked to the end of the corridor and she opened her apartment door. Riley took a step back as she entered and turned on the lights.
“There’s no one here,” she said, smiling.
“If I’m not careful, I won’t live to be an old man, drooling his oatmeal while I sit on a sunny beach somewhere.” Riley entered and made a quick search of her small apartment. When he had satisfied himself that she was on the level, he walked to the large windows overlooking the ocean and watched the waves lapping the shore in the moonlight. A spaceship was launching from the spaceport across the bay. A launch at night was a beautiful sight.
Vanessa had closed and locked the door, then asked, “Can I get you a drink? Glass of wine maybe?”
“Sure,” Riley answered, still holding his briefcase. “I’m going to wash up,” he said.
“Okay,” she called from the kitchen.
Riley set his briefcase next to the sink and unwrapped his homemade bandage. The cloth had stuck to the congealing blood and pulled away from the knife wound with difficulty. “Do you have any skin weld?” Riley called.
“No, but there’s some bandages in the cabinet.”
Riley opened the cabinet and found a couple of large bandages. He cleansed the wound as best he could, then applied the bandages. Retrieving his briefcase, he met Vanessa in the living room.
“Have a seat,” she said, motioning to the sofa by the windows, as she handed him a glass of red wine.
Riley set the briefcase down, then plopped onto the sofa. Vanessa sat down next to him, gently. She took a sip of wine, then put her arm on the back of the sofa and started playing with a lock of hair hanging down on Riley’s neck. Riley raised his glass to his lips, but stopped short of drinking.
“Shouldn’t you call Hardisty and find out how much he’s willing to pay for this?” Riley asked.
“What’s the rush?” Vanessa asked. “He can wait.”
“How long is he willing to wait? He knows you made contact with me, doesn’t he?” Riley took a sip of wine.
“Of course he does. But he can wait, at least until morning,” Vanessa leaned closer and kissed Riley.
* * *
Riley opened his eyes the next morning and found he was alone. He quickly looked over the side of the bed and saw that his briefcase was gone. “Damn it!” He quickly scrambled into his clothes and searched the apartment, just to find it empty. “Damn it!”
He walke
d towards the door and was just reaching for the knob when the door burst open.
“Back!” the voice commanded as a pistol was pointing at Riley’s face. Three men entered the apartment—two men pointing their guns at Riley and a third that was obviously in charge.
“Where is it?” the third man asked.
“I don’t know,” Riley said still backing up from the first man as the second man searched the apartment.
“Come on, Riley. Save us both the trouble,” the man in charge sputtered. The first man poked Riley in the chest with the barrel of his pistol, sending Riley backwards onto the sofa.
“I just woke up. It’s gone. She’s gone,” Riley said.
“He’s right,” the second man said as he returned to the living room. “It’s not here.”
“Riley, Riley, Riley,” the man in charge tisked. He pulled out his handcom and turned away. Riley couldn’t make out the conversation, but when the man in charge turned back around, he knew it wasn’t good.
“Bag him. Milo says to bring him to the garage.”
The first man cocked his arm holding the pistol.
“Not in the head!” Riley protested as the man’s arm swung down, catching Riley on the side of his head with the pistol butt.
* * *
The bucketful of water hit Riley square in the face, waking him up with a start. He couldn’t see, as he sputtered from the impact of the water, and realized that he was blindfolded. He also discovered that his arms were tied behind his back, most likely to the chair in which he was sitting.
“I’m not going to waste my time questioning you, Riley,” the man in charge said. “We’re just going to wait here until my men find her. But I don’t want to be bored, so . . .”
The blow hit Riley on his left cheek so hard that it knocked him and his chair over. Rough hands grabbed him and set him back upright.
Riley spat blood onto the floor. “What happens if they don’t find her?”
The next blow hit Riley in the stomach, knocking the wind out of him. As he struggled to catch his breath, another bucketful of water hit him in the face.
“Don’t worry, we’re not going to kill you, yet.” Another blow to the face sent him toppling over. As he was being set back up, Riley heard the buzzing of a handcom, followed by the muted conversation of the man in charge.